Imagine this, we fight off Murozond and win only for him to curse all of Azeroth and put us in a time bubble. For the people in Azeroth it would be like only one year has passed, but for everyone else in the universe it will be as if a few thousand years has passed.
Doing this would allow the universe to breed new baddies for us to kill. Also, it would force the people of Azeroth to fight against civilizations that may have grown in the vacuum of a universe without universe ending threats like the Burning Legion/Void Lords.
Heck, we can see what Karesh and Outland would look like if they had a few thousand years to develop. Hell, maybe Aszhara managed to find some new power and now has her own intergalactic empire that she can now use to destroy Azeroth.
I don’t know why they would need to bother with a time bubble to just make up new threats out in the universe. Heck, they already say things like “time moves different between Azeroth and Alt-Draenor/Argus/The Shadowlands” all the time.
Time moves different in those places because they are no in the same plane of existance as Azeroth. Where as presumably places like Karesh or Outlands(as well as all the invasion points) will have the same flow of time as Azeroth because all of these worlds are part of the physical universe.
Plus you give whatever new threat the backstory of being able to have some long storied history as oppose to just poofing out of thin air.
I mean, it’s still just a new threat getting poofed out of thin air, the time bubble just adds an extra step. They can just make up a long storied history to whatever they make.
I like internal divisions and Azerothian villains. I want a time skip, but on Azeroth after the World Soul Saga it ends with Azeroth and centuries or at least a few decades pass and a new Azeroth is born with all new races, allies and factions. This can also give a soft reset for the villains of the universe to lick their wounds.
You’re basically asking for a WoW 2 at that point. Also, half of the main cast is basically immortal, so a few decades timeskip really wouldn’t change all that much for most of the races.
Imagine a Horde 200 or 300 years down the road. Would the Forsaken even still exist, or would they have all rotted away? You’d have all these orcs, trolls, tauren, etc… looking at Blood Elves like Lor’themar in awe, because he was there when the Horde was young, he’s been there the entire time, he knew THRALL, CAIRNE, VOL’JIN, all the major heroes of myth and legend! The man is a walking reminder that the past actually existed.
That could honestly be a pretty fascinating narrative to explore, to be honest. These Orcs and Trolls who have this Blood Elf around who has seen it all, seen the civil wars, the conflicts with the Alliance, the fall of the Legion and the Scourge, etc… How does any young hot-blooded Horde-loyal orc/troll ARGUE with someone like that? Yet, wouldn’t resentment build if they’re expected to just, accept everything he says as fact and obey because he’s seen it all and knows how virtues spiral into ideas and then plummet into madness when in excess? Might they feel as if they’re nothing but dogs on leashes, choking every time their elven master pulls them back from going too far, while firmly believing they aren’t going far enough?
Let’s say a hypothetical the Horde and Alliance defeat the Titans, but as the cosmos resets Azeroth is born and the world ends, or resets, or some cosmic event where our world simply moves on without us or with us. I’d love a WoW 2 to eventually be created.
The Alliance races are extremely long lives so (Mecha)gnomes live 400+ years, Dwarves as well live for centuries, Elves of all variaties live effectively millennia so High/Void/Half-Elf/Night/Nightborne/Blood etc would still be around and likely fully rebounded. Light/Man’ari/Eredar of all kinds amongst the Draenei would still be very alive. Worgen and Humans live about 80-100 years and maybe Worgen will be long lived due to Genn Greymane in his 70+ still being able to fight against people half his age or more in their prime thanks to the Worgen curse, but overall they’re an unknown how long they’d live due to the curse of Goldrinn.
Of the Horde since they’re more prone to short lives and the beast races as well. So Orc averages 70+ years same with trolls, Tauren may live 100+, but not particularly long lived compared to elves. Goblins rarely live to be 30s+ due to their high proclivity to explosions and death via failed experiments. The Horde races would likely have more transitions and likely only have Zandalari trolls who are 200+ years old like Rastakhan and maybe only Lor’themar, Talanji and Thalryssa being the only ones alive with maybe Baine pushing 100+ years old like his dad Cairne.
Of the Alliance, Alleria/Vereesa/Umbric would lead the Alliance Elves along with Tyrande/Maiev/Jarod and then Velen along with all the Draenei of all varieties. The Gnomes would likely still have King Gelbin and Prince Erazmin due to how long lived they are relatively same with all Dwarven leadership possibly finally led by Moria and the council of the three hammers maybe finally ceding to Prince Dagran. I think Turalyon would still be alive since he’s Lightforged. I think ironically the Alliance leadership and the Alliance races would still be around 200-400 and with some changes after 1000+ years due to how long lived the races within the Alliance are. Humans in a 100 years would likely fully repopulate the Eastern Kingdoms and the Elves slowly recovering their numbers with Draenei as well.
The benefit the Horde has is that the short lived races like goblins reproduce like rabbits. So humans, orcs, trolls, tauren and pandaren would all have multitudes within a few centuries assuming no major wars or calamities. The only up in the air races would be the undead who would slowly rot away and we know they eventually have their bodies fall apart and Sylvanas commented that while elves being long lived basically immortal wasn’t a big change for her as an elf being undead, but for humans being undead and not having the capacity to just age and die was much worse for them. I think it was in Before the Storm where she mentioned this natural frailty between human undead vs elf undead. I can see scenarios where the Death Knights who are better preserved followed by Darkfallen being the majority of the surviving undead. Can’t imagine the average Forsaken surviving in great numbers for centuries. Maybe 50 more years and without a means to reproduce they’d go extinct, worgen may actually survive, because the downside of the curse is not bad and longevity, superhuman strength and agility is far better than being undead rotting away.
I’ve always liked the idea of the Forsaken taking on a more Light-Egyptian vibe, though obviously there’s no way to integrate that without it being a straight up AU or, as you say, timeskip.
Though that begs the question - how would a (non night elf) society that never ages develop or stagnate? And how would a post Sylvanas, post Valkyr forsaken raise new undead? I don’t have those answers but I think it’s neat to think about.
I know this might ruffle some feathers of some users here, but I think in the long term I expect orcs to be culturally assimilated(or at the very least influenced) by Alliance member states—-humans in particular. Might take a generation or two but maybe one day there will be orc priests and paladins - and if we’re thinking a hundred year gap, for all we know in that future most of the Horde could be on friendly terms with the Alliance.